What type of stone is windsor castle made of

From the moment of its creation it was associated not only with the wealth and advanced architecture, but also with royalty that lived in it. With is thousand year occupation by the royal family of England, Windsor castle represents the longest-occupied palace in Europe and one of the most visited tourists attraction in England.

Castle was built on the small hill alongside river Thames, a location that was previously used by both Celts and Romans who reinforced that area with forts and hill forts. After William the Conqueror defeated the last Saxon king, he built a ring of fortifications around London. His great keep was the Tower of London, and he also built a series of nine castles. All were less than 20 miles away from the Tower. Henry I was the first monarch to use the castle as a primary residence.

Henry II built extensively at Windsor between and He constructed the stone round tower in the middle ward as well as the stone outer walls on the upper ward. Henry III built the stone walls on the lower ward as well as three new towers between and He also built one of the first royal chapels at Windsor.

He spent a great deal of time and money converting Windsor Castle from a military fortress to a residential castle. Edward IV began St. When he came to the throne in , he lavished refurbished many palaces and castles, including Windsor. He built the grand entrance and staircase at the State Apartments. Today these apartments hold artwork from the Royal Collection, including pieces by Rembrandt, Rubens, and Canaletto.

In five places below the windows are large rayed roses, each charged with a crucifix and crowned, which were meant to serve as part of the series of consecration crosses.

The most interesting section of the interior is the ambulatory behind the high altar. The east side of this is the lower part of the west front of Henry the Third's chapel, with a wide-pointed doorway flanked by two arched recesses of similar design and height.

The panelled stone ceiling of the ambulatory is of the reign of Henry VII. The first bay of the south aisle forms a vestibule to the chapel south of it, and has on the key of its fan vault figures of Edward IV and Bishop Beauchamp kneeling on either side of the famous Cross-Neyt fn.

George's chapel by Edward III. The polygonal chapel to the south was built to contain the relics of Master John Shorne, the saintly rector of North Marston, Bucks. The chapel is now nearly filled by the alabaster tomb with effigies of Edward Clinton Earl of Lincoln, K.

The earl's effigy shows him lying bare-headed in full armour. Round his left leg is the garter, and on his knee-pieces are anchors, in allusion to his office of lord high admiral. About the sides of the tomb are kneeling figures of the earl's children by his first and second wives.

On the west wall of the chapel is a delicately carved and coloured alabaster panel with the earl's armorial ensigns. The chapel has a fan vault, and is now inclosed by an Elizabethan iron grate. The arch into the aisle west of the Lincoln chapel, as it is now called, has a deep recess in each jamb. That on the north contains an old Bible, but formerly, as the painted inscription below shows, a copy of probably the Sarum Porthos, laid there by Bishop Beauchamp, whose arms occur below the opposite recess, in which was displayed some notable relic, perhaps at times the Cross-Neyt itself.

The aisle windows here and throughout the building consist of two pairs of cinquefoiled lights, in three tiers, flanked by narrow blind panels. These divisions are continued downwards to form a series of wall panels resting on a stone bench, which runs all round the chapel.

Upon the bench stand the vaulting shafts. Oliver King. The arms of Henry VI occur in the same bay in which his remains were reburied after their removal from Chertsey in , and those of Oliver King before the little chantry chapel built by him outside the aisle, apparently between and Under an arch between the aisle and the chapel is the bishop's tomb or cenotaph, and on the opposite side of the aisle is a row of panels painted for him with figures of Edward the first-born son of Henry VI, Edward IV, Edward V and Henry VII.

The aisle also contains, against the fifth arch on the north side, the chantry chapel, inclosed by elaborate stone screenwork, of John Oxenbridge, canon from to The angel cornices and niches within deserve notice, and likewise the panel paintings, dated , with the passion of St.

John Baptist, that cover the north side. In the bay west of Oxenbridge's chapel are the stone doorway and iron grate that inclosed until the chapel of Dr. Christopher Urswick in the nave. Under the third arch in this aisle is the grave of Charles Brandon Duke of Suffolk, brother-in-law of King Henry VIII, and the helm on the pillar near by probably formed part of his funeral achievements.

The easternmost bay of the north aisle of the quire is covered with a fan vault with the rayed rose badge of Edward IV, and forms a vestibule to the vestry which extends northwards from it through a doorway inserted in The vestry measures 26 ft. Its north end abuts upon the canons' porch, built temp. Edward III, and contains its rich but mutilated doorway. Within the vestry are the great sword of Edward III that formerly hung over the sovereign's stall in the chapel of St.

George, and a full-length picture of him painted in The two next bays of the aisle formed originally the lower chapel of the founder, Edward IV, and within the first arch of the presbytery, under which he was buried, is the king's unfinished tomb of black marble, beside which is fixed a funeral helm. Opposite it is a doorway into a small chamber with a blocked fireplace built outside the aisle, and westward of this another doorway opening into a vice to an upper chapel.

This is 40 ft. The tomb seems never to have been set up, but the chapel was finished before the king's death in It has unfortunately been modernized internally, but still retains its windows: one on the south, another on the east and three on the north. In its west wall is a little oriel window looking down the aisle, and in its south side were two larger oriel windows towards the presbytery.

The westernmost remains, but the other has given place to a deeper oriel of wood with traceried panels, inserted temp. Henry VIII. The chapel is now subdivided by Georgian Gothic partitions into two wainscoted pews or closes with fireplaces for the royal family and their suite. The vault that carries it, which is kept low for the purpose, has upon its keys the arms and badges of Edward IV, but the higher vault to the west is of the time of Henry VII, and two of its keys bear the arms of Thomas Fitz Alan Lord Maltravers, —87, and of William Lord Hastings, beheaded in In the same bay as the latter, on the south side, stands the beautiful stone chantry chapel of Lord Hastings, within which he is buried.

It closely resembles the Oxenbridge chapel, which was obviously copied from it, and is decorated within by a series of contemporary painted panels with the passion of St. Before leaving the quire aisles mention may be made of certain modern monuments in them. In the south aisle, at the east end, stands the life-size marble statue of the German Emperor Frederick, who died in , in uniform and military cloak, with the collar of the Garter, and in the north-west corner, under Oliver King's painted panels, is a tomb of red serpentine and white marble with inlaid brass cross, erected by Queen Victoria in memory of Mary Duchess of Gloucester, who died in In the north aisle, under the third arch, is a statue in white marble of William Earl Harcourt, G.

Sir John Elley, K. Gerald Wellesley, for twenty-eight years Dean of Windsor, who died in The crossing of the chapel is oblong in plan, and has on every side a tall four-centred arch with flat sides and soffit, relieved by panelling. Across the eastern arch is a Gothic gallery, which carries the organ, built of Coade's artificial stone in —1, in place of the earlier gallery figured by Hollar. The new gallery, which was designed by Emlyn, has to the nave an open arcade of five arches, with a similar arch at each end with panelled parapet above.

Beneath is the main entrance into the quire, through a wide square-headed opening fitted with a pair of richly carved doors of the same date as the stalls. Like all the other doors within the chapel these are solid as to the lower half, but have the upper part of open tracery filled with simple iron grates. The quire is separated from the aisles by four-centred arches with continuous mouldings, divided from the clearstory by panelling surmounted by a continuous row of feathered angels with outspread wings carrying scrolls.

The clearstory windows are tall pointed openings similar to those in the aisles. In front of each pier, rising from an angel corbel at some height up, is a group of shafts carrying the vault; not that for which provision was first made, but a rich one copied from the nave vault, contracted for by, probably, the same freemasons, John Hylmer and William Vertue, in June , to be finished by Christmas The seven pendants forming the principal keys bear the arms of St.

George, St. The quire of golden angels round the window and the altar piece below it, with the Ascension in white marble, are also from Scott's designs. South of the altar, over the quasi-sedilia, hangs a panel of Arras tapestry, copied from Titian's picture, which was formerly in the castle, of Christ and the two disciples at Emmaus. It was given to the chapel by John Viscount Mordaunt, constable of the castle in , and at one time was hung over the altar.

The arch north of the altar and that next to it are lower than the rest, owing to Edward the Fourth's chapel behind them. The first was blocked by the existing panelling in , and in front of it was placed the magnificent pair of iron gates that once formed the western boundary of the king's chapel in the aisle.

These beautiful gates and the open traceried towers between which they are hung are formed of numerous superposed pieces of thin pierced and hammered iron carefully pinned together, and were almost certainly made under the direction of John Tresilian, the principal smith, who was working at Windsor from onwards at the high wage of 16 d.

The splendid canopied oak stalls of the knights of the Garter ranged along both sides of the quire and returned against the screen at the west end were begun to be made as early as , and were apparently all fixed in their places by There were originally four returned stalls on each side and twenty-one more in front of the arcades, or fifty in all, but two more stalls were added on both sides in , and the number is now fifty-four.

There is also a lower row on each side of ten and nine old stalls, with two Georgian added to the latter, with beautiful carved texts above them in front of the upper desks from the 20th and 84th Psalms. The lower desks are richly panelled, with sculptures in the spandrels, and have below them seats and desks for the choristers and towards the east for the Military Knights. Both ranges of stalls have misericordes with the usual delightful diversity of carved devices and subjects.

The rich effect of the stallwork is greatly enhanced by the painted banners of the knights of the Garter that hang above them, the crested helms and wooden swords that surmount the canopies, and the glittering stall-plates affixed to the panelling; the display of all which is enjoined by the statutes of the order of the Garter.

The stall-plates date, with some few earlier exceptions, from , since which there is a fairly perfect continuous series down to to-day. The Stuart and later plates are mostly of gilt brass, with the arms merely painted, sometimes over engraving. Recently there has set in a reversion to the old fashion of brilliantly enamelled plates. Taken as a whole the series of stall-plates forms such a storehouse of ancient and modern historical armoury as exists probably in no other church in Europe.

Further west stands the fine early 16th-century latten desk from which the lessons are read, anciently used by the chanters when the quire was ruled. The organ upon the loft at the entrance of the quire was built by Green in and given to the chapel by George III.

Its Gothic case was designed by Emlyn. It was originally intended that the crossing of the chapel should be carried up as an open lantern with glazed sides, and a strong effort was made from onwards to obtain subscriptions from the knights of the Garter towards the completion of it and a proper rood-loft. The project was, however, eventually abandoned, and in the crossing was ceiled instead with the existing fan vault, painted with the arms of the several knights.

The beginnings of the proposed lantern are still to be seen above it. The north arch of the crossing was formerly spanned at about half its height by a loft in the form of a stone gallery, with a slight pulpit-like projection facing south. It was needlessly destroyed in The north and south transepts are identical in plan, and have not only a window like that of the aisles in each of their sides, but an upper series in continuation of the clearstory, rising from a similar sculptured quire of angels.

The consequent effect is that of a great glazed lantern. Each is covered too by a richly groined vault with various devices and badges on the keys. The polygonal apses are shut off from the oblong bay next the crossing by open traceried stone screens surmounted by the armorial ensigns of Sir Reynald Bray, K. That to the north is the Rutland chapel, within which a chantry was founded in by Sir Thomas St.

In the middle stands an alabaster tomb with fine recumbent effigies of Sir George Manners, Lord Roos, who died in , and his wife, the lady Anne daughter of the Duchess of Exeter, who died in Along the sides are figures of their children and upon the ends angels, all holding shields. On a bracket in the east window is a large funeral helm that may belong to this tomb.

The place of the altar is marked by a cornice, under the window, of sculptured angels like those in the Hastings and Oxenbridge chapels. The south transept formed the Bray chapel, and was apparently appropriated by his executors for the burying place and monument of Sir Reynald Bray, K.

It was accordingly enriched by the addition of canopied niches for images upon the vaulting shafts, by the insertion of a reredos over the altar, and of large panels of Della Robbia ware, 50 in. These panels have unfortunately all been destroyed, and only the frame remains of that under the south-east window around the alabaster monument of Sir Richard Wortley ob. The reredos, which consisted of tabernacle work and imagery, is also partly destroyed, through the insertion in it of the monument and bust of Giles Tomson, Bishop of Gloucester, and some time Dean of Windsor, who died in Beneath the other three windows are monuments of Sir William Fitzwilliam ob.

The place of Sir Reynald Bray's tomb in the middle of the chapel is occupied by the white marble cenotaph and effigy of the Prince Imperial ob.

The nave resembles the quire in elevation, except that the vaulting shafts in front of the piers start from the floor. The vault which they support also resembles that of the quire, which was copied from it, but lacks the pendants which characterize the latter. As Sir Reynald Bray's arms are encircled by the garter, the vault cannot be earlier than , when he was elected K. The west end of the nave is occupied for almost its whole height and breadth by a great window of fifteen lights, flanked by canted angles containing doorways to the stair turrets within.

The window is filled for the most part with made-up figures of old glass, fragments of the original glazing collected with mistaken zeal from all parts of the chapel in Though the general effect is not unpleasing, the figures have been so much restored as to be devoid of any antiquarian interest.

By their removal from their original places all hope of recovering the original glazing scheme, even from fragments, has been destroyed. The westernmost bay of the nave is narrower than the others and flanked by polygonal chapels opening from the aisles. The southern chapel is that in which Sir Reynald Bray by his will desired to be buried, but its ornaments include nothing allusive of him, and the chapel is largely occupied by the marble tomb with alabaster effigies of Sir Charles Herbert, K.

The chapel, which was dedicated in honour of our Lady, was assigned to Lord Herbert by the dean and chapter in , and to him is due the large niche north of the altar place and the bronze grates or screens that inclose the chapel and surround the tomb.

Lord Herbert's effigy represents him as bareheaded and in armour, with the garter round his left leg and about him the mantle and collar of the order. Lady Herbert is shown with her hair let down and encircled by a fillet. On the wall of the chapel is a long inscription recording its defacement during the 'Great Rebellion' and its restoration by Henry Duke of Beaufort in A huge monument was also set up to this duke in the chapel, but removed to Badminton, on account of its size, in The corresponding north chapel is that of the Salutation, and in it a chantry was founded in —4 by Thomas Passhe and William Hermer, formerly canons, and John Plummer, some time virger.

Another chantry was founded at the same altar in by Dean Christopher Urswick, who inclosed the chapel with the screen and grate now in the south aisle of the quire. They were removed thence in to make way for Wyatt's well-known marble monument of the Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales and her stillborn son, who died in The chapel is now inclosed by an insignificant modern railing.

Further west in the same aisle is the mural monument, with bust of a blind man within a wreath of poppies, of George V, the blind King of Hanover, who died in At the west end of the south aisle stands an elaborate alabaster font, designed by Mr. Pearson and given in memory of the Rev.

Anson, for forty years a canon, in Hard by, under the sixth arch of the main arcade, is a high alabaster tomb with marble effigy of Edward Duke of Kent and Strathern, who died in The pulpit, which stands in the nave, was designed by Mr.

Nutt and is of quite recent date. Close to the south doorway is a remarkable iron box for offerings. It consists of an octagonal body 17 in. On each side is a crocketed canopy springing from buttresses upon the angles, and surmounting a Lombardic letter b. On the top are four slits for offerings with sliding lids, alternating with as many castles, also pierced for coins, arranged about a much larger castle with a domed roof encircled by a broken crown, likewise furnished with coin slits.

This unique object is in all 3 ft. It is undoubtedly by the same craftsman who designed the magnificent iron gates of Edward IV's chapel. Before leaving the nave attention should be called to the little 'brays' or hempbrakes of iron, the badge of Sir Reynald Bray, with which the inner face of the south door is powdered, and to the beautiful lock plates on the various doors and gates within the chapel in general.

The flooring throughout the chapel, except the 17th-century black and white marble pavement in the quire, was all relaid at the end of the 18th century. The chapel fortunately contains little modern painted glass. That by Willement in the quire aisles, inserted at various times between and , is interesting from its date, but consists of mere translucent coloured pictures. The heraldic glass in the clearstory windows is of more sensible character. Owing to the considerable rise of the ground from west to east, the western part of St.

George's chapel is built upon a basement. This consists of a polygonal chamber beneath each of the western chapels, connected by a barrel-vaulted tunnel. The chambers were well-lighted living rooms, with doorways from without and furnished with bed recesses and chimneys.

That to the north is still easy of examination, despite its being converted into a lead-casting room for the plumbers, but the southern one is nearly filled by the organ bellows.

Neither chamber has any direct communication with the chapel, though the northern has a staircase leading upwards towards the north doorway; but both were probably built as the abodes of chantry priests or clerks of the chapel.

The west front of the chapel has the large window flanked by lofty stair turrets, and up to the great doorway is an ascending flight of stone steps of modern date. The old doorway in the ambulatory of St. This was originally the ante-chapel of Henry the Third's chapel, and still retains its north doorway, but the rest of the passage, including its panelled vault fn.

This was built inside the older chapel, the north wall of which has been retained to a sufficient height for the new buttresses to stand upon it without intruding upon the cloister, but the south wall has gone. The new building is thus only 28 ft. Owing, moreover, to the western gable of the Lady chapel being built upon the line of the old screen between the chapel and ante-chapel its length is only 71 ft.

The Lady chapel now forms the Albert Memorial chapel, and is five bays long, with a three-sided apse towards the east.

It is entered by a Tudor doorway from the passage, which serves as a vestibule to it. The floor and steps are throughout of marble and mosaic, and along the side walls is a marble bench. The walls are panelled up to the windows with variously coloured marbles in which are set large pictures in tarsia work of scenes from Old Testament history with intermediate figures of the Virtues. This decoration is continued into the apse with pictures of our Lord's Passion. The altar has a slab of green marble, and stands before a reredos with a representation of the Resurrection in white marble.

The windows are all of four lights and transomed, but the west window has twelve lights, now closed with mosaic pictures of notable persons connected with or benefactors to the College of Windsor. The vault is enriched with mosaic by Salviati.

In the north wall is a Tudor doorway communicating by a wall passage with the old vestry, now part of the Deanery. Before the altar stands the cenotaph of the Prince Consort, an elaborate marble tomb surmounted by a white marble recumbent effigy in fluted armour. The middle of the chapel is occupied by the more magnificent but unfinished monument, by Alfred Gilbert, of H. The sarcophagus which contains his body is of Mexican onyx, and is surmounted by a recumbent effigy of the dead prince in bronze.

The tomb is inclosed by a splendid bronze screen with statuettes of saints. Further west is a third tomb, in white marble, with effigy of H. The marble mosaic work of the chapel was executed by M. Jules C. Destreez from the designs of Baron H. Externally the chapel is divided into bays by boldly projecting buttresses bearing the arms and badges of Henry VII, and carried up as pedestals intended for images of the king's beasts. Below the south windows are more badges and over them an open traceried parapet, but towards the north the parapet is plain and battled.

Both parapets were renewed in Portland stone in —1. The passage between the two chapels opens directly into the Lower or Dean's cloister. The alleys vary in width, the eastern and western being from 12 ft. The south wall formed one side of the chapel of Henry III, and has an arcade of one narrow and four wider arches with part of a fifth, standing upon a stone bench.

The arches are of two orders, carried by shafts with stiff-stalked carved capitals; the principal shafts are of Purbeck marble. The incomplete arch towards the east shows that the 13th-century cloister was somewhat longer than the present; it has within it a blocked Tudor doorway with the old vestry passage within. The west wall also dates from c. In its south end is a doorway from St.

This is copied from an original Tudor doorway further north, now converted into a window, which formerly opened on to a wall stair to the erary or treasury. In the north end of the wall is a wide doorway of a date c. The north alley has a stone bench like the south and west alleys, built against a wall which formed part of the camera ordered to be built by Henry III in The original buttresses have been cut away, but one of the windows remains, a plain square-headed loop grated with iron.

In the middle of the wall is an inserted 14th-century doorway into the Canons' cloister. The east wall of the cloister is all of the 14th century and has no bench along it. In its northern half are various interesting openings. They include 1 a wide doorway into the Deanery, and a group consisting of 2 a doorway formerly a window, 3 another doorway and 4 a traceried window. The modern window at the south end was inserted by Dean Wellesley.

The cloister alleys are paved with stone, with occasional pieces of old monumental slabs. The walls were wainscoted until quite late in the 18th century. The south alley is covered by a lean-to roof and the other alleys with flat modern ceilings. The wall inclosing the grass-plot should date from , but has been so often 'restored' that, except at the angles, it is practically new.

The corner piers have on each face a canopied niche for an image, flanked by Purbeck marble shafts. In each side are four windows of four cinquefoiled lights. The inclosing arches are set in square openings with pierced quatrefoils in the spandrels. On the garth side the divisions are marked by slender buttresses which once carried pinnacles, but these are now lacking. The buttresses on the west side were rebuilt on a larger scale in , when the chapter-room above was added by Scott.

This room is a pretentious and elaborately panelled apartment lighted by pairs of Gothic windows, but quite devoid of interest. Adjoining it on the north is the chapter clerk's office, a work, apparently, of the latter part of the 15th century, still retaining a panelled wooden ceiling with carved bosses and one of the windows of the old library, of which it formed part. Both rooms are reached from the cloister by a stair in the thickness of the west wall. The north alley is partly over-ailed by a 16th-century room with oriel window, all of timber with brick nogging, belonging to one of the houses in the Canons' cloister; it has, however, been much modernized.

The south and west alleys were formerly surmounted by the library, which was placed here in —4; it was, however, restricted temp. James I to the western side, and eventually removed to the old vicars' hall, where it still is. The eastern side of the cloister is now covered by a range of buildings containing the chief apartments of the Deanery.

These include not only the rooms that replace the original lodging of the warden, but, on the ground floor, the vestry and chapter-house appended in the 14th century to the chapel of St. The walls are now covered with wainscot, but the drain for the altar remains behind it. The arch of the east window is also left, but has lost its tracery. The recess thus formed contains a modern chimney and window, and an old doorway into a passage communicating with the Albert Memorial chapel.

Next to the vestry is the old chapter-house of —2, now the dean's dining room. The walls are wainscoted chair-high, and the room is covered, as always, by a flat ceiling. To the north of the room is a passage from which it is entered. This was originally wider, and formed a lobby to the chapterhouse, having at its west end the large doorway and its flanking windows still to be seen in the cloister.

The original windows of the western block can be traced on both sides, but with the exception of some remains of moulded plaster ceilings, c. The 14th-century doorway in the north alley of the cloister leads into an irregular quadrangle, fn. These occupy the site of the camera of Henry III, which was partly burnt in , and removed later to make room for them.

They fill up all the space between the King's cloister and the castle wall, and extend westwards from the old ditch across the north end of the lower ward. Three of the early towers along the castle wall are incorporated into them. The original houses of half-timbered construction still remain along three sides of the court, and are of two stories, the upper being carried forward in front of the lower over an open gallery or ambulatory extending all round the quadrangle.

The original arrangement consisted of thirteen sets of chambers for the vicars upon the ground floor and the same number above for the canons, but the inevitable changes during six and a half centuries have obscured the old divisions, and the houses now form ten separate tenements for the canons and minor canons.

The garth is divided into two unequal portions by a transverse pentise. The doorway in the north-west corner of the Dean's cloister opens into a passage going westwards. This forms one end of a beautiful porch, measuring 23 ft. It is two bays long and has panelled walls and an elaborately panelled stone vault. The chief doorway is at the south end, and can now be seen only from the vestry. The treasury above, now called the erary, by corruption from its older name of erarium , has a tiled floor, a stone vault with carved keys, a chimney inserted in —4 , and a two-light window, guarded within by a heavy iron grating added in —7.

It is reached by a staircase from the cloister, and in it are kept the muniments of the dean and chapter. The west side of the porch and erary was formerly covered by the canons' chapterhouse. The wide space north of St. George's chapel was, and still is, filled with a variety of buildings.

Its eastern half used to be occupied by a walled-in court, having on the east the large house forming the end of the Canons' cloister, on the north another good house, also of brick, of the 17th century, which is still there, and on the west by Denton's Commons. The house to the north has its front divided by Ionic pilasters into four bays, and into three stages by simple string-courses, but the simple dignity of the original work, which was perhaps designed by Wren, is marred by the modern windows.

The wall that inclosed the court before the house was pulled down in The building known as Denton's Commons stood partly upon the site of the great hall. This was almost entirely destroyed by Bishop Beauchamp when clearing the ward for the new chapel, but a fragment of it yet survives and its foundations remain. On the upper was the hall with its pantry, where the chaplains and choristers kept their commons, and in the lower the kitchen, buttery, larder, and pastry.

The south end of the hall was filled with a large square-headed window of five lights. The 'cook's chamber,' a two-storied structure with lodgings for the cook and undercook, stood on the north-west, and to the north across a narrow passage was a building along the castle wall, with the storehouse below and the choristers' lodgings above.

To the east and the west of Denton's building were narrow courtyards. In this interesting structure was converted into a dwelling-house, and so continued until , when it was most unnecessarily destroyed, with the exception of its north end. The hall chimney-piece, bearing Denton's rebus, was saved through the efforts of Mr.

Cope, the chapter clerk, and inserted in the old vicars' hall, now the chapter library, where it may yet be seen. When Denton's Commons was pulled down it was found that the lower part of its east wall had formed part of the great hall and the remains of a rich doorway temp.

Henry III adjoined it. A window and an upper doorway of the hall were also uncovered in its north end, and may still be seen in the fragment of the building which has escaped destruction. To the west of the site of Denton's Commons, against the castle wall, is a good red brick house of the time of Queen Anne, the residence of one of the canons.

Next to this is a picturesque half-timbered building, also along the wall, used until lately for some time as the choristers' lodging; it now forms two tenements. The front is quite modern and dates only from , when the old house was reduced in size and the remains thoroughly 'restored.

The building seems to have been erected at the end of the 15th century for the 'schoolmaster of grammar' and the 'schoolmaster of music. The choristers have been housed since in a building below the castle on the north, erected in for the abortive foundation of the Naval Knights of Windsor, provided for in under the will of Mr. Samuel Travers. The north-west corner of the lower ward is filled with the lodgings built originally for the accommodation of the vicars.

The thirteen vicars ordained by Edward III first lived in the chambers below the canons, but this arrangement not working well Henry IV in granted the place called the Woodhaw, beside the great hall, as a site for houses for the vicars, clerks and choristers. These seem to have been built in —16, but only the hall since the chapter library remains, the other buildings having been removed during Bishop Beauchamp's clearance for St.

George's chapel. The old hall extends southwards from the castle wall, upon which its north gable is built, for some 70 ft. Beneath the hall is the organist's house, formed out of the original cellars.